Tell Congress: We Need Jobs, Not Cuts

In the coming weeks, Congress will be making decisions that will have long-term effects on our economy. If our elected representatives act responsibly, they have an opportunity to shrink the economic inequality gap and protect the vital services working families depend on for years to come. We need to make sure they do just that.

Dear Congress:

In the November election, Americans delivered a mandate: Fix the economy by strengthening the middle class and working families. Our country has come a long way since the worst of the recession, but far too many families are still struggling to make it.

As you consider urgent budget decisions over the next seven weeks, our highest priority is job creation and economic growth, and not devastating cuts that will cripple our recovery. The best way to reduce the deficit is to put people back to work and accelerate our recovery.

When you consider these proposals, we want you to:

* Create jobs and grow the economy. The best way to reduce the deficit is by investing in good jobs and keeping the economic recovery going.* Protect Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. Any deal must protect the millions of Americans who depend on these core programs and maintain our nation’s safety net.* Let the Bush tax cuts for the top 2% expire and require corporations to pay their fair share.The middle class tax cuts should be extended immediately.* Protect vital public services like child care, Head Start, and special education.

Economics: Energy, Environment, & CommerceResearch by various hemp business associations indicate there are around 50,000 non-smoking commercial uses for hemp that are economically viable and market competitive. These include: continued...

Lawmakers in both the House of Representatives and the Senate are seeking to allow for the commercial farming of industrial hemp by introducing the Industrial Hemp Farming Act.

House Bill 1831, which was introduced last year by Texas Republican Ron Paul and a coalition of 25 co-sponsors, and SB 3501, introduced this August in the Senate by Oregon Democrat Ron Wyden and three co-sponsors, would exclude low potency varieties of marijuana from federal prohibition.

Previous versions of The Industrial Hemp Farming Act have been introduced in the House, but failed to receive a public hearing or a committee vote. This is the first year the issue has ever been introduced in the Senate. Please write your members of Congress today and tell them to end the federal prohibition of industrial hemp production.

The hempseed is one of the most balanced sources of omega-3 and omega-6 Essential Fatty Acids (EFAs). Studies link many common ailments to an imbalance and deficiency of EFAs in the typical Western diet: too much omega-6 and not enough omega-3.

Hemp is environmentally friendly crop that doesn't require massive applications of fertizilers and pesticides to thrive. It doesn't deplete the land and grows under adverse conditions. Virtually every other country in the world allows its cultivation and are developing its industrial uses which include the extraction of oils for food to the making of bricks for low cost housing. This is the crop that could save the family farm in America.

Industrial hemp has a THC content of between 0.05 and 1%. Marijuana has a THC content of 3% to 20%. The hemp plant is tall and stalky and the marijuana plant is short, shrub-like, and has "buds". It's an annual plant that grows from a seed, and because of its quick growth (average of 4 months) it requires limited pesticides.

-Environmentally, hemp is a safer crop to grow than cotton. Cotton is a soil-damaging crop and needs a great deal of fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides."Frequently Asked Questions about Cannabis Hemp" Brian S. Julin, 1994

-Cotton crops in the USA occupy 1% of the country&rsquos farmland but use 50% of all pesticides.The Emperor Wears No Clothes, Jack Herer, 1993

-1 acre of hemp will produce as much as 2-3 acres of cotton."Marijuana and Hemp: The Untold Story" Thomas Bouril, 1997

Percentage of worldwide insecticides used on cotton production 25%Percentage of worldwide agricultural acreage in cotton production 0.5%Average pounds of chemicals used on one acre of cotton in the US per year 4Pounds of pesticides used in 1993 on US agriculture fields 811 millionPercentage of the world market in pesticides controlled by 10 companies 73%Pesticide spilled into Sacramento River that killed fish within 20 miles / metam-sodiumRank of metam-sodium among pesticides used in 1992 on California cotton / 2ndNumber of fatalities worldwide caused by accidental pesticide poisoning each year / 20,000Number of worldwide non-fatal pesticide poisonings each year / 3,000,000Year Silent Spring was published / 1962Approximate percentage of change in pesticide use in the US since 1964 / +150%Number of years cotton has been cultivated / 4,000Number of years cotton has been cultivated with pesticides / 50Number of pounds of organic cotton used in Patagonia clothes in 1996 / 500,000Cost to Patagonia of organically-grown cotton vs. cost of conventional cotton / apx. 2:1

PVC (polyvinyl chloride) products are everywhere and are dangerous to our health and environment from start to finish - in the factory, at home, and in the trash - releasing poisonous chemicals linked to cancer and birth defects.

A field containing one and one-half acres of hemp plants was cut last year and burned at Ellsworth Air Force Base. White Plume considered the hemp as the mainstay of an agricultural crop that could aid his Tiospaye in becoming self sufficient. He said he is "a proud grandparent trying to find economic independence for myself and my people so we will no longer be considered a dependent nation."

Hempseed was used to treat nutritional deficiencies brought on by tuberculosis, a severe nutrition blocking disease that causes the body to waste away.(Czechoslovakia Tubercular Nutritional Study, 1955.)